When I was younger, my main activities were: going to school, playing field hockey and tennis. As I am getting older and life is more busy combining study, work and a social life, working out is sometimes not my priority. However, it should be high on my list. According to a Global Health report, more than a quarter of all adults over the world, do not get enough physical activity (Parker, 2016). This is concerning, since poor physical activity can lead to a big range of health issues that are recognized all over the world, including diabetes and mental health problems. Physical inactivity has even been identified as the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality (World Health Organization, 2017).

In the past years, technology attempted to solve this problem, by introducing fitness and nutrition applications. The value of the global fitness technology market is currently $17.9 million and is expected to flourish to $62.1 billion in 2025 (Parker, 2019). There have been a few start-ups that saw an opportunity of changing the fitness landscape, such as Aaptive Coach and Mirror.

Aaptiv Coach offers an AI-based assistant that provides a personalized fitness plan to each user, taking in account their fitness level, goals, eating patterns, and collected data from devices such as smart watches (ASEAN, 2019). Based on this data combined, the personal coach will explain them which actions should be taken to achieve these goals. The trainers create the classes, and these classes will be streamed to the app, making use of artificial intelligence to measure progress. To use this service, it costs $15 a month.

Another start-up, Mirror, invented an immersive mirror that turns into a ‘home gym’, whereby unlimited fitness classes are streamed (O’Brien, 2019). During the class, users will be able to see themselves, their classmates, and their instructor in the mirror. Besides, these customers have the opportunity to track their heartbeat and calories burned.  In order to guarantee privacy, users can put a lens over the camera, if they are not using the product. Also, this product enables optimized, personalized workouts, one-o-one with an instructor.However, the costs for purchasing this mirror are $1500, plus a $40 monthly subscription.

With technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, people are able to exercise anywhere at any time. Besides, AI & ML make it possible to offer a personalized plan tailored to someone’s fitness levels and goals. I am sure that in the following years, the industry will shift to these initiatives and it will become the standard. However, the costs of using these services could be high, which means that only a small proportion of the people worldwide could use it. What do you think? Can technology actually help us to get in shape?

References

ASEAN. (2019, May 24). Meet Aaptiv Coach – an AI-based personal Coach – Asean HR. Retrieved October 16, 2019, from https://aseanhr.org/technology/meet-aaptiv-coach-an-ai-based-personal-coach/

O’Brien, S. (2019, October 8). This startup wants to put a personal trainer in your mirror. Retrieved October 16, 2019, from https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/08/tech/mirror-fitness-startup-personal-training/index.html

Parker, R. (2019, July 16). Corporate Wellness Consulting Services Market 2019 Including Top Key Players- Corporate Fitness Works, EXOS, Karelia, Kersh Health, Kinema Fitness, Marino Wellness – A Market Research Report. Retrieved October 16, 2019, from https://www.amarketresearchreport.com/corporate-wellness-consulting-services-market-2019-including-top-key-players-corporate-fitness-works-exos-karelia-kersh-health-kinema-fitness-marino-wellness/36328/

World Health Organization. (2017, May 23). Physical Activity. Retrieved October 16, 2019, from https://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/pa/en/

Last Friday afternoon I was reading an article about Albert Heijn, one of the most famous retail stores in the Netherlands.
I was already aware of some developments within this industry and the way data is collected. For example, by using your own ‘bonuskaart’ Albert Heijn tracks our purchases which allows them to provide us personal discounts. Also, Albert Heijn was one of the first companies to introduce ‘self-scanning’, whereby customers do not have to wait for cashiers and pay by themselves.

But now, Albert Heijn wants to make it even easier for their customers. Currently Albert Heijn is testing a 14 square meter prototype store in Zaandam, where there is no cash register and products no longer need to be scanned. To make this system possible, AH works together with the American start-up AiFi and with ING. They have developed advanced visual and sensor technologies that make scanning-free shopping possible (Van Ammelrooy, 2019).

Sensors and cameras keep track of who unpacks what from which shelf and the products will then be added to a virtual shopping basket. These sensors even feel it when you put something back, which makes the system very accurate. When customers enter the store they open the gates by scanning their debit card and the total amount will be displayed on the screen at the exit. With scan-free payment, AH is the first retailer in Europe to make this possible. However, Amazon already introduced this concept in 2018 (Chris, 2018).

The technology Albert Heijn is using is related to image recognition technology. Image recognition technology is making big improvements in the last few years.  The speed of improvement has accelerated quickly recent years as a new approach, based on very large or “deep” neural nets, was adopted. The error rate of image recognition technology declined from 30% in 2010 to 4% in 2017 (Brynjolfsson & Mcafee, 2017).

I think it is a very logical step of Albert Heijn to introduce scanning-free shops, due to the innovative digital era we are living in. For the customers it will become easier to pay and to buy products from any place at any time. Since this digital store is so small, it can be placed on a truck and move around at locations where a supermarket is temporarily needed, such as offices, universities and new residential areas. Besides this can be a solution against shopping theft, which frequently occurs with self-scanning. However, when it comes to staff, it is important that Albert Heijn keeps a close eye on developments. It is very important that there is enough staff in a digital store to help customers properly. Furthermore, I had my concerns regarding customer privacy, since the sensors and cameras can track everything we do in such a shop. Albert Heijn emphasizes that the system does not use face recognition, the cameras only record shapes and movements. If the prototype shop will be a success, I am very curious what the future of retail will bring us.

Brynjolfsson, E., and Mcafee, A. 2017. The business of artificial intelligence: what it can and cannot do for your organization. Harvard Business Review

Chris, J. (2018). The supermarket with no checkouts. [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-42769096 [Accessed 10 Sep. 2019].

Van Ammelrooy, P. (2019). Albert Heijn introduceert winkel zonder kassa en personeel. [online] Volkskrant.nl. Available at: https://www.volkskrant.nl/economie/albert-heijn-introduceert-winkel-zonder-kassa-en-personeel~bf52a73b/?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F [Accessed 10 Sep. 2019].